On the first anniversary of the South African launch of Spotify, the world’s largest music streaming service, the top ten local artists and tracks of the year have been revealed.
Spotify says it received a hugely positive response from South Africa music fans on its launch, who were attracted by Spotify’s depth of catalogue, 3-billion playlists and personalisation features, such as Discover Weekly and Daily Mix.
At its launch, South Africa joined 64 other countries on Spotify, and the number has now grown to 79 countries, encompassing more than 200-million users, and more than 40 million tracks.
Spotify today revealed that the most-streamed local artist by South African music fans since launch is Nasty C. Black Coffee was the second most-streamed local artist in South Africa, closely followed by AKA at number three.
Black Coffee’s Drive (with David Guetta, featuring Delilah Montagu) – which has already amassed over 25 million worldwide streams on Spotify for the radio edit version – was the most streamed local track by South Africans since launch, followed by Collide from Lady Zamar, with Fela In Versace from AKA in spot.
Spotify also revealed that, based on the number of streams in major cities since launch, Johannesburg was the most musical city in South Africa. However, that is hardly surprising, given that it also has the biggest population of any South African city. Spotify also found that Friday 22 February 2019 was the most musical day of the last 12 months, when Spotify saw the most streams by South Africans.
Pop continues to claim prominence as the top streamed genre on local listeners’ playlists. However local hip hop has also had a huge year on Spotify, with the likes of Nasty C and AKA making it onto Spotify’s top lists and playlists throughout the year, which could be attributed to fans wanting to get their hands on the much-anticipated albums Strings and Bling and Touch My Blood, respectively from each artist.
Claudius Boller, Spotify’s Managing Director for the Middle East and Africa, said: “Our first year in South Africa has been extremely exciting and we have been thrilled by the response from music fans. Our launch in South Africa – our first African market – gave us the opportunity to offer local music fans access to a world of new music and genres, as well as giving local artists the opportunity to connect with a global audience of music fans on Spotify.”
Click here for the full list of top ten artists and tracks on Spotify
The top 10 local artists most streamed by South African audiences since launch in March 2018
- Nasty C
- Black Coffee
- AKA
- Snotkop
- GoldFish
- Mlindo The Vocalist
- Jeremy Loops
- Fokofpolisiekar
- Sjava
- Prince Kaybee
The top 50 local tracks most streamed by South African audiences since launch in March 2018:
